In an early-stage startup, there’s a lot of value to people who know not only how to execute their jobs, but also how to look around, understand the larger vision, and be curious about how everything works together. Yerzhan, OrderCast’s newest backend developer, brings that kind of self-driven attitude to every aspect of his life, from his studies to his hobbies, making him a great fit for growing our B2B ordering solution.
Yerzhan’s early career as a developer was driven by the various revolutions set off by Steve Jobs at Apple: the iPhone and MacBook Air came out when he was young, and when Yerzhan got his first Air as a 10th grader he began learning to code for iOS.
“After I got my first computer in high school, I got involved in the International Olympiad in Informatics, and then I got a scholarship to study informatics at university in China. While I was there, I got a job as an iOS developer at a Chinese medical startup, which eventually got acquired.”
After finishing university, he returned to Kazakhstan and started working with a large IT company, “kind of a Kazak Google.” There he worked in two teams, as an iOS developer and as a backend developer. That’s when someone said something that made him rethink his career: “iOS developers don’t become CTOs, backend devs become CTOs.”
The goal of being a CTO — or, now as Yerzhan laughs, a CEO — came from his desire to understand every aspect of a business.
“For me, product is really important. I don’t want to just use my hard skills, I also want to use my soft skills to understand all the stakeholders, to talk to users and figure out how to help them. I like that OrderCast gives me the opportunity to dive into the project from A to Z, to take ownership in terms of how the product develops.”
Now living in Kazakhstan, Yerzhan is taking full advantage of both his new job and his proximity to the outdoors. “I love snowboarding, and we’re really close to the mountains here. That’s one thing that I didn’t like in Beijing, the pollution. I love to be outside, so I’m enjoying it here. And I’m excited to get to work on OrderCast!”
Welcome, Yerzhan, we’re excited to have your thoughtful way of working put to the use of OrderCast’s customers! And if you’re reading this and want to be part of that adventure, reach out — we’re currently hiring for multiple positions 🤗
